Buckland Monachorum is celebrating its village hall’s centenary with a special open day event this weekend.

Children from Buckland Beehive Pre-school have been getting into the spirit of things making decorations for the centenary event, which takes place on Saturday (July 8) between 10am and 2pm. 

The group for pre-schoolers meets in the village hall five days a week.

Other groups which regularly use the hall include the Buckland Monachorum Drama Group, which puts on two productions a year, the art group, which meets every week, and a snooker club.

There’s also a range of keep fit activities including Margaret Morris Movement classes and ballet classes. 

Recently the Charleston Friendship Café has been set up to provide regular opportunities for people affected by dementia to meet. They use the hall as well. 

And every month the hall hosts a coffee morning where local people meet up and buy homemade cakes, gifts and crafts from local businesses.

Originally set up on its site at the top of the village as the WI Hall, on land bought for £25, the hall has been extended and improved many times over the years.

Today, there is a snooker room and well-equipped kitchen in addition to the main hall which has a removable stage and modern lighting. 

Another meeting room, called the Richard Mabey Room, has also been added in a tribute to the hall’s chairman of many years, together with a storage facility for the drama group’s extensive costume collection. 

To mark the hall’s centenary the village is raising money to help finance a major project to upgrade the hall’s heating and insulation, making it more energy efficient and keeping running costs down.  

Village resident Stephen Fryer has been helping run the hall for over 30 years, including 15 as chairman.

“It’s been a privilege and a pleasure to help maintain the village’s hall –  it’s really is a key part of the village,” he said. 

“The hall hosts a wide range of activities for village people – young and old – and helps foster the fantastic community spirit in our village.

“Having such a good hall in a small village is down to the hard work of volunteers who set it up and to this day continue to look after it and raise money to further improve the facilities. 

“Many of the founders’ descendants still live in the village and use the hall to this day. It is a living tribute to their forebears.”